Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool’s indoor track and field teams both came home from Saturday’s CNY Counties League National division championship meet with first-place finishes.
The Warriors only took part in the boys division and, with 141 points, edged past the Northstars, who was second with 136 points. Without Liverpool to worry about, CNS, with 189 points, topped Baldwinsville (142 points) and the rest of the field.
Every point was important in the boys meet – and it helped the Warriors to have Zavon Watkins around as he won three different events.
Watkins won the 1,000-meter run in 2:35.51, where CNS saw Jared Walther and Kevin Cialfi take third and fourth, respectively. Watkins added a victory in the 600-meter run in 1:24.84, with teammate Kameron Arnold in fourth, and he needed 36.98 seconds to beat teammate LaQuan Kitchen (38.29 seconds) in the 300-meter dash.
On his own, Kitchen won the long jump, going 19 feet 7 1/4 inches as CNS’s Shawn Webb (17 feet 5 1/4 inches) finished second. Justin McGriff (40 feet 7 inches) and Ryan Ronk (37 feet 2 inches) went 1-2 for the Warriors in the triple jump ahead of the Northstars’ Morgan Austen in third place.
The Warriors’ Joe Spernyak beat the field in the 55-meter hurdles in 8.05 seconds as McGriff finished fourth. Jackson O’Connor, with a shot put toss of 38 feet 4 1/4 inches, beat CNS teammates Joe Castaldo and William Dygert for that title. Liverpool also gained points in the 4×400 relay, where it was second (3:36.90) and CNS took fourth place.
The Northstars had Chris Buchanan win the mile in 4:26.53, with Anthony Lupia (4:38.49) in third. Neill Gill took second (10:06.69) and Ken Ryan was third in the 3,200-meter run. Frank Volino was fourth in the 300 and Ryan Connor fourth in the 55-meter dash.
CNS did finish second in the 4×800 relay in 8:41.43, where Liverpool finished third, but the Warriors got second in the 4×200 relay, its time of 1:37.57 just behind B’ville as CNS settled for third.
Also for the Northstars, Mike Hyde won the pole vault, clearing 11 feet as Cameron Shaughnessy (10 feet) claimed the runner-up spot. And in the high jump, Hyde was third as Joel Brousseau (5 feet 8 inches) beat Spernyak by two inches.
Meanwhile, CNS went to the front in the girls meet with its distance runners. Maria LaMontagne, with a time of 11:09.91, edged Nicole Watterud for the top spot in the 3,000-meter run, and LaMontagne also prevailed in the 1,500-meter run in 4:56.84 as Waterrud again took second, in 5:06.96.
In the 1,000, Katie Laris won in 3:12.98 and Jackie Halstead (3:15.29) finished second. Nicole Campagna edged Marissa Colburn, 1:46.32 to 1:46.38, in the 600. Both Campagna and Colburn took part in the winning 4×800 (10:15.37) with Shannon Bausinger and Sarah Shannon. Ayah Saleh, Rachel Wisely, Chelsea Davidson and Jamie Ryan were first in the 4×400 in 4:30.30.
Colburn prevailed in the triple jump, going 31 feet 2 inches. Maria Thomson won the shot put, tossing it 31 feet 11 1/2 inches as Janae Price finished third. Katie Osborne had a top long jump of 15 feet 1 1/4 inches as Jessica Wheeler won the pole vault (6 feet 6 inches). Shelby Howell got second place in the 55 sprint in 8.14 seconds as Justine Seliger got second in the 55 hurdles in 10.49 seconds.
